(A) Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to an electronic card connector, more specifically, to an electronic card connector installed inside a communication equipment, such as a cellular phone, to be connected to a corresponding identification card, for example, a SIM card.
(B) Description of the Related Art
Examples of some memory card connectors are shown in Chinese Patent No. 99125707 and in Taiwanese Patent No. 86212738. Such memory card connectors typically include a dielectric housing having a plurality of terminal-receiving passages which extend between a top mating face of the housing and a bottom board-mounting face of the housing, along with a plurality of conductive metal terminals mounted in the passages. The terminals are pushed into the passages from the bottom face of the housing. Each conductive terminal includes a base located in the passage, a solder tail extending from the base and a contact portion which extends from an opposite end of the base and expose at the top mating face of the housing for engaging the contacts of a memory card. The solder tails are soldered to circuit traces on a circuit board to which the connector is mounted.
As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, existing electronic card connectors are designed in such a way that a conductive terminal 71 is held in a terminal passageway 72 through an interference body 712 of a base portion 711, whereas the insulating housing 70 itself is not equipped with any interference portion to specifically hold the soldering tail 713. The insulating housing 70 will expand when being heated up, whenever the electronic card connector is soldered onto a circuit board. However, when being soldered onto the circuit board, the soldering tail 713 does not follow to alter its own shape. So, the holding force provided by the interference body 712 of the base 711 is insufficient to prevent the insulating housing 70 from deforming and bending upward. As a result, the soldering tail 713 is separated from the insulating housing 70, and thus affects the performance of the electronic card connector.